Egypt says 2 senior Muslim Brotherhood officials arrested

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's state-run news agency says security forces have arrested the secretary general of the Freedom and Justice Party, the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing, and another high-ranking Brotherhood member.

The news agency says on Monday Hussein Ibrahim, the dissolved party's secretary general, and El-Refei Hassan, were hiding in the western Mediterranean province of Marsa Matrouh on Egypt's north coast. It says they have confessed they were trying to reach Libya.

The Muslim Brotherhood has been facing a mass crackdown since President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi led a July 2013 military ouster of former President Mohammed Morsi, a longtime Brotherhood official, amid mass protests against his rule.

Morsi is now in jail, the Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organization in December 2013, and the party dissolved in August last year.